IMPORTHTML incorrectly formatting as dates

Question

I am using the 'IMPORTHTML' function in a sheet. But one of the results of the array of which is imported is formatted as '0/00'. Google Sheets thinks that this is a date, while I do not want it to be a date, as it messes with other functions such as 'VLOOKUP'. For example, if one of the cells in the array is 5/25, Google Sheets assumes this is '5/25/2021'. Also, if I change the format to "Plain Text", it results with "44341". I have tried multiple things such as changing the formatting before using 'IMPORTHTML', but I have found no solutions to this specific problem. Mainly, I want Sheets to not assume 'IMPORTHTML' values as dates.

--Hyde · Accepted Answer

Hi Peter,
 
I am afraid that there is no easy way to make importhtml() stop converting values that look like dates.
 
One possible workaround is to format the problematic column as m/dd, as that would make the result look like what you want. You can then use trim() In your vlookup() to convert the column back to text strings to let the matching work &mdash; assuming that your search keys are text strings as well.
 
If you need more help, please share a sample spreadsheet that shows realistic-looking sample data and your hand-entered expected results from that data.
 
Cheers --Hyde